This is the last episode 39 and the last episode of the show, The Space Adventures of Flash Gordon. The Show is a science fiction series that follows main characters Flash Gordon and his companions Dr. Zarkov and Dale Arden as they fight to defend the galaxy. The three person team is a member of the GBI, a confederation of planets that fight to protect the galaxy. The Show was based off of a comic strip written by Alex Raymond from the 1930’s. In this episode, Flash and his teammates return to the center of the Earth to stop the plot of an underground society lead by Zaldu. This society sought to escape from underground in order to take over and rule the planet’s surface. Have previously failed at accomplishing this, Zaldu attempts to magnetize the iron in the Earth’s crust to increase the pressure underground. In doing so, Zaldu hoped to stop Flash and his team from thwarting his attempt to take over the surface. Through the use of an atomic demagnetizer that Dr. Zarkov had created, Flash and his team are able to neutralize the effects of the magnetized iron and stop Zaldu from completing his task.
The show began filming in 1953 and the first episode aired October 1, 1954. The final Episode of The Space Adventures of Flash Gordon aired July 15, 1955. While the show received fifteen thousand dollars an episode, the production values are often criticized as cheap. This may have to do with the fact that each thirty minute episode was filmed over a short period of three days. The show was produced by Wenzel Ludecke through the Inter-Continental Film Productions studio and was very popular in America at the time. The Show was syndicated and continued to air reruns through the 1960’s. (TRM/110)

Today we are all so used to high tech graphics and special effects. But back in the early fifties the special effects were...well...lets just say lacking. For it's time Flash Gordon was just about as "cutting edge" as any other science fiction movie or show. Today it's just cheesey.

BUT, for those of us old enough to have grown up back then and watched it, it brings back fond memories of our lost youth.

I wonder why they used pseudo-german sounding accents for the underground people.

I really would like to love this show. But its pretty boring. Notice the long gaps between dialogue. Its so... Slow? The sets are so flimsy.
The shows premise has nothing to do with F lash Gordon. It's actually much closer to Buck Rogers and is set in the distant future. I cant say when the Universal serials took place. I don't think it was mentioned, but I was always under the impression that Flash Gordon has a contemporary setting. We have Zarkov, Flash and Dale, but no Ming, no Mongo or Frigia? No Aura, no Vultan, no Thun and no Barin. Steve Holland is perfect as Flash, and his costumes are cool,but that's all you really get.
None the less, I hope that I can someday see the whole series. Don't ask me why. I'm a completest.

So amazing to see how Flash Gordon got its start in moving media and evolved into the later - now cult classic - film with a Queen soundtrack and all. Great! Thanks! MC

....There Could Be A Worse Sci-Fi TV Series Than Rocky Jones, Space Cadet..But This Kraut Krap Wins Hands Down..!

This el-cheapo version of Flash was filmed in Germany, so ALL the aliens have German accents. This is why so many of the episodes look like they're set in bombed-out cities...they were FILMED in bombed-out cities. Pretty bad stuff. Flash's low point until SyFy got hold of him. That comparison earns this version an extra star.

A sci-fi TV researcher has provided a nice synopsis for each eppy here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~joesarno/tvcomics/flash.htm

The epps are in alphabetical order, not air order.

IMDB has the epp order here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140738/episodes#season-1

Must see TV - Steve Holland seems to be hoping for a 50's-esque leading man part, judging by the eee-normous hair-do and frequent need to remove his shirt to reveal his "guns and six-pack." Very much similar to William Shatner in the 1960s TV ver of Star Trek - so many resons to remove your shirt when doing sci-fi, don't you know!

Sort of a "Flash Gordon" for the Ed Wood set, this is a very bargain basement version here, with minimal special effects, bad acting, and curiously bad story lines. In this, Flash and company must go and go to war with the people living beneath the earth's core. It's run by a guy with a bad German accent and yes, his idiot savant. The ending is spectacular.. watch how he catches the bad guy! And then THE END. Like they couldnt come up with a non sequituir to wrap it up?

Interesting show. My brother and I would get early Sunday morning before going to Sunday School and watch Flash, Dale, and Dr. Zarkof foil
the attempts a some dastardly fiend.